I was a bit disappointed with my recent visit to the Toledo Zoo. It has been about ten years since my earlier visit, but while there have been some major changes in that time, the zoo still felt "old".
The first exhibits you come to are the Arctic Encounter (polar bears, grey + harbour seals, wolves) and Africa!, both of which are relatively new (less than 10 years old).
The Arctic Encounter felt like a fairly standard arctic exhibit, with above and below water viewing of polar bears and seals. I was disappointed with the polar bear exhibit, primarily due to the fact that while the rockwork was new, that was all their was - no natural substrate to be seen! The underwater viewing area was nicely set up in an indoor facility, with an elevated overlook as well as a lower area where people could get closer to the glass. The most innovative part of the exhibit was an area where the seal pool went under the polar bear exhibit, with a skylight to allow the bears to look down at the seals. The interpretation was the best part of the exhibit for me - there was a "choose your own adventure" style quiz with seven or so stations, where you were given a situation and two choices ... the next station described why one choice was the "right" choice, and related it back to life in the arctic for both people and animals. Very well done.
Africa! was a major disappointment for me, although it really wasn't that bad. The most shocking thing was the sheer volume of people amenities in relation to animal exhibits! There were only two exhibits - a paddock for African wild dogs (nice size for this roaming species) and a large mixed species exhibit with various hoofstock and birds. A train circles the complex, presumably with a narration. Unfortunately, the train completely circles the wild dog exhibit, making for very poor viewing from the visitor pathway, since you have to look over the train tracks and through chain link.
The open savannah exhibit was a large area, although not as large as I had envisioned based on the guide map. Inhabitants included Masai giraffe (3), brindled gnu (3), greater kudu (~4), impala (~5), Nile lechwe (one very old male), Grant's zebra (2), plus ostrich, white stork, vultures, and some guinea fowl. Viewing is from one vantage point (unless you are on the train), and most of the birds and the impala keep to the far back of the exhibit. The oddest thing about the exhibit was the addition of sculpted features and animals ... hyrax set along the viewing area, a fake hammerkop nest, and two crocodile posed at the water feature!
People amenities in Africa! included a gift shop, the train station, a restaurant, beverage, and bathroom complex, two large rentable pavilions, a face painting and caricature store, another restaurant area, and another souvenir stop.
The old half of the zoo (reached by a pedestrian bridge over the highway) contains the Hippoquarium (1988) - still the premiere exhibit at the zoo in my eyes, with underwater viewing of river hippos that rivals the new hippo exhibits being constructed now! I also really enjoyed the Cape clawless otters and their exhibit, but the rest of the "Savannah" exhibits felt small and somewhat lacklustre.
The reptile house was shockingly Gothic (flagstone floor, wrought-iron chandeliers), the aquarium very standard, and the aviary was neither here nor there for me.
The Primate Forest exhibit (new in 1998ish) was an interesting concept, with three outdoor mesh enclosures and two indoor dayrooms. The five species of primates exhibited (white-cheeked gibbon, Francois' langurs, colobus, Allen's swamp monkeys, and diana monkeys) are rotated through the different enclosures on a day-to-day basis, giving the animals a different environment on a daily basis. The colobus and swamp monkeys were together in the same enclosure on both days I visited, but everyone else moved around (an interesting take on the rotational exhibit).
The great ape complex (with orangs, chimps, gorillas) didn't feel that special to me, with indoor dayrooms and outdoor mesh habitats. The outdoor chimpanzee exhibit was quite densely vegetated, which surprised me, but the orang exhibits were boring to look at, with a mowed grass "floor", and regular timber climbing structures.
Other exhibits include renovated bear grottoes for sloth bears and tigers, a penguin pool, mesh-enclosed waterfowl pool, and "Cheetah Valley" (looking down into the exhibit from the old stone terrace at the heart of the zoo). The (temporary?) amphibian exhibit was well done, but the building it was housed in seemed cavernous in relation to the exhibit.
And that is basically the zoo ... it may be "complete" in terms of displaying representatives from most taxa, but the haphazard arrangement (a pet peeve of mine) and seemingly few exhibits did not leave me with a great impression. I would rank the Toledo Zoo beneath the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo in terms of overall experience (or, I would visit Cleveland before Toledo).
